Golf Course Information

Description

About 1858 Major Henry Hancock, a surveyor and Mexican War veteran, who made the second official survey of the City of Los Angeles, acquired some four thousand acres of land, originally part of a Mexican land grant known as Rancho La Brea. He may have received some of it for his survey services but much was purchased by the Major and his brother John for about $2.50 per acre. It took many years of wading through heirs, land grants, commissioners and courts, even the United States Supreme Court, to gain clear title.

G. Allan Hancock inherited most of this property. In 1900 he organized the Rancho La Brea Oil Company, which drilled a number of oil wells on land now part of the Wilshire Country Club. After some years, oil produced contained so much tar, its value no longer justified the cost of production. Hancock considered other use of the land and some was sold.

About this time, circa 1919, and just after World War I, a few Los Angeles business men came up with the idea of constructing a golf course on this open area. Hancock was quite willing to lease at a very modest rental and to include an option to buy. Raymond and Moye Stephens were Hancock's attorney's. They also happened to be interested in golf.

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